1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to the field of advertising on mobile display terminals. More specifically, the invention relates to targeted advertisements delivered to mobile display terminals that are inserted into predefined advertisement spots.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 are examples of a prior art mobile transmission system. Major networks, e.g. NBC, ABC, etc. own, generate, and distribute content 120. The content is transmitted as a stream 201 along with advertisements to mobile network operators (MNOs) 103, who are also known as mobile broadcast operators (MBOs) and/or multi system operators (MSOs) 102. Typically the content 120 already contains ads included in advertisement-spots (ad-spots) 202. Some additional ad-spots 203 are left free within the content stream for addition of ads by the MNO 103.
The MSO 102 typically transmits to home televisions and other line-connected display systems 104, over cable and other fixed transmission links. The MNO 103 transmits to mobile display terminals 105 by performing A/V transcoding of data followed by compression over a wireless link. Typical mobile display terminals include, e.g. mobile handheld devices, cell phones, PDAs, and other wireless enabled display devices.
The Mobile Operator (MO) 106, e.g. Sprint®, Verizon®, Comcast® provides local transmission and coverage of mobile display terminals 105. The MO 106 has no relationship or connection with the content or ads that are transmitted and does not participate in the revenue generated by the ads in the content stream. The MO 106, in fact, owns and operates the software on the mobile display terminal 105 and guarantees the security of content and service with no revenue sharing. Since the MO 106 does not share in the ad revenue, there is no incentive to provide the software or capabilities to target focused ads on the mobile display terminal 105. The MO 106 might support targeted ad insertion software if the MO 106 shared in the ad revenue. However, currently there is no efficient method for inserting focused ads with tight synchronization and control into the selected free ad-spots in target mobile display terminals using the multicast wireless transmission.
FIG. 2 shows the ad-spots as they exist in a content stream 201 as supplied by major networks 101. Major networks 101 insert the ads 202 in their allocated ad-spots that, for example, are defined by the start at 202A and end at 202B during content 201 creation. During a multicast transmission, these ads are distributed to all the mobile display terminal 105 users. The MSO 102 inserts a separate set of ad-spots as shown between the time identifiers 203A and 203B and another set between 204A and 204B. These ads are also broadcast on a multicast network and transmitted to all mobile display terminal 105 users simultaneously.
It would be advantageous to insert focused ads for different target groups such that each group can view the ad that has been generated for them during content viewing. It would also be advantageous to provide focused ads to targeted groups of users of mobile display terminals.